Guardian Angel
by Fictional Affliction
Summary: Guardian angel au aka Duncan can't keep himself alive for sh*t
1. Part 1

I'm back from the dead? Kind of lol I feel terribly that I haven't posted any writing in a while so here's the guardian angel au that I had continued but never posted. Part 1 of 2.

* * *

Duncan squinted as a blindingly bright light seemed to encompass everything. The last thing he remembered was swerving when that truck came out of nowhere. In the light he could see a figure walking toward him. As the figure grew closer he could see the silhouette of a woman and large white wings. He blinked a few times and shook his head. His only explanation was that he must be dreaming. When the woman was finally close enough so that he could make out her glowing features his eyes went from slits to saucers.

"I must have died and gone to heaven because you babe, must be an angel." He greeted her and her sweet smile turned into a frown.

"That pickup line just made sending you back to earth the easiest thing I've done all day." Even though she was insulting him, the melodic tone of her voice almost made it sound like a compliment.

"Wait, so I'm actually dead?"

"Not quite. You were hit by a truck and you're hanging onto to life by a thread, but lucky for you, you have me."

"And you are? Not that I'm complaining cause I could look at you for eternity." The angel rubbed her temples, Duncan didn't realize that angels could get headaches.

"I'm your guardian angel, although now I'm questioning what you did or are going to do to deserve one." Duncan just stared slack jawed, he hadn't comprehended much after she said "guardian angel".

"Let's just get this over with." The golden glow radiating off her skin felt warm as she got closer to him. She gently placed her hands on his shoulders and leaned in.

"I knew you wanted to kiss me." Duncan said smugly causing the angel to grip his shoulders more firmly to where it hurt a little.

"It sends you back to your body. You can thank the angel that came up with the kiss of life. Trust me, this is strictly business." She explained curtly and leaned in again.

"Wait! I didn't even get your name-" She cut him off by pressing her lips to his.

Duncan's eyes snapped open in the hospital bed. He tried to look around to find the beautiful woman but she was gone. All that was left was the harsh fluorescent lights of the hospital and the pain that sought his entire body. With all the strength he had he lifted his hand and brushed his fingers against his lips.

* * *

It had been 8 long months. Months filled with being stuck in a hospital bed. Months of healing and physical therapy. He'd broken a leg, an arm, some ribs and had gotten a serious head injury in the crash. The doctors said it was a miracle that he was alive, but Duncan knew that it had to be because of something else...someone else.

At first he wrote it off as some drug induced hallucination, but it had felt so real. His lips had tingled for hours after he had first awoken in the hospital. More and more frequently he dreamed of the ethereal beauty that had given him another chance at life, and could picture her perfectly. She was his dream woman, but she wasn't real.

She couldn't be. Duncan didn't believe that things like heaven or hell or angels existed; but there was no other way to explain what he experienced. Worst of all, the need to see her again was taking over his every thought.

The desperation of needing to know that she was real was what lead him to be standing at the edge of a lake in the middle of November.

Duncan's reflection in the moonlight looked back at him and showed the apprehension on his face about he was about to do. He lifted his leg and his foot hovered over the water. It was now or never.

He plunged into the water and let it fill his lungs.

"Do you have a freaking death wish!" He could barely hear her shrill scream through his coughing fit.

"Hold on," he managed to get out between coughs "I still feel like I'm drowning." She grabbed him by the collar so they were face to face.

"That's because you were drowning! What is wrong with you! You did that on purpose!" She exclaimed unbelievably. Once his gasps subsided he was able to focus on her.

"Wow..." He murmured hoarsely. "You're even more beautiful than I remember..." His angel groaned and shoved him away.

"Why did you do that Duncan?" She crossed her delicate arms over her chest and glared. Duncan scratched the back of his head.

"Honestly, I wasn't sure that it would work."

"That doesn't answer my question! It's my job to keep you alive and I can't do that if you keep trying to kill yourself!"

"Tell me your name and I'll tell you why." He tried to bargain with her.

"No!"

"Please? I'll be a good boy and not try to die, I promise." Her eyes narrowed at him skeptically. Her wings shook with the gravity of the sigh she released.

"Fine...it's Courtney."

"Courtney." He repeated back to her, getting a feel for the way it felt on his tongue.

"Yes, now you have to answer my question. Why did you jump in the lake?"

"You watch me? Like even when I'm in the shower? " Duncan raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"You're avoiding the question." Courtney said with a cold face, not amused

"Okay okay. I...wanted to see you again." She didn't look convinced.

"I wasn't sure if you were real! I was losing my mind!"

"Clearly. What kind of idiot tries to toe the line between life and death."

"One with a gorgeous guardian angel?" Complimenting her wasn't an easy fix.

"It was a rhetorical question!" Courtney straightened her halo that had become askew in her exasperation. "Well I'm real, you saw me, now it's time to go back."

"I just got here!"

"You're not supposed to be here!" Courtney looked to the watch on her wrist that Duncan hadn't noticed until now. "We're running out of time."

"What happens if we run out of time?"

"You die. For real. But that's not going to happen. You see Duncan." She sauntered up to him slowly, using a tactic she knew would work. "I always get the job done." When she reached him she took one glowing finger and trailed it down his chest. "No matter what the cost." She whispered seductively as he was frozen where he was. Duncan wasn't the type of guy to get easily flustered, but she was different. Where she touched him was warm and inviting, her words were like a song. She entranced him and made him feel as light and airy as she looked.

"Now, behave and don't come back here for another seventy or so years."

"No promises angel face." He slurred as if he was drunk from her touch.

"It had to be you." Duncan didn't know what she meant by that but before he could question her, she kissed him. He wrapped his arms around her but just as he tried to pull her closer she was gone.

He gasped for air as he emerged from the water. His lungs burned as he coughed up water, his arms and legs working again to keep him afloat. He was back in the lake. All of him felt frozen except for his lips. As he swam to the edge he recalled her and remembered what small piece of herself she had given to him.

Courtney. Her name was Courtney. She told him not to come back. Too bad for her that Duncan rarely listened to what he was told.

* * *

Courtney sat on a cloud with her legs crossed. She inspected her nails as she waited for him to inevitably arrive. Any second now.

"There's my favorite angel." Courtney rolled her eyes at his attempts to flirt with her and gracefully hopped down from the cloud.

"You're right on time."

"I'd never be late to a date with you babe."

"Pretty morbid for a date."

"Whatever Courtney, you look forward to seeing me." She responded by rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

"You've only got a few minutes until you have to return and throw up those pills you swallowed." Courtney reminded him with dismay. She was supposed to protect him, but she couldn't control what he did on earth. All she could do was send him back when he was on the brink of death. So she had come to terms with the little arrangement they had.

It was becoming more frequent. Every other week or so Duncan would put his life in danger. The measures he'd taken to see her over and over again knew no bounds. He'd thrown himself from his bike, slit his wrist, he'd even tried to asphyxiate himself. Every time he'd let Courtney revive him if she answered one question, that was the deal. By now he knew her name, favorite color, how "old" she was, her favorite book, the list went on.

"I got a really good one this time." Duncan insisted, reaching for her hand.

"I already told you that angels don't have sex." Courtney smirked and let him hold her hand. It was against the rules to let him touch her, and she was the ultimate rule follower, but what harm could it do after all he did just to be with her.

He waited a beat, taking in the warmth he got from being in her presence.

"How did you become my guardian angel?" Courtney's smile fell immediately and she pulled her hand away from his.

"I can't tell you that." She turned her back to him, her large wings blocking his view of her.

"Why not?" Duncan protested. Things had taken a turn so suddenly and her demeanor only fueled his desire to know the answer, to what he thought was a harmless question, even more.

"I've entertained this for too long." Courtney answered coldly as she tried to shut him out physically and emotionally.

"What do you mean?" Duncan pushed further. Courtney sharply turned around, her facial expression very serious but her eyes gave away something terribly solemn.

"This has to stop. You can't keep coming to see me."

"Why? And why won't you answer my question?"

"Because it's reckless and I just can't!" Courtney yelled back.

Duncan wasn't going to give her what she wanted. He wasn't going to let her block him out. For the first time in his life he felt in love, like he belonged with someone. If there was a reason behind why Courtney was the one protecting him, then he had a right to know.

Duncan's body sunk with the heaviness of the sigh he released. Courtney looked determinedly at her watch, surely counting down the seconds and getting more nervous when each one passed. Gingerly., he took her hands in his which gained her attention, and lifted them to his lips so he could kiss them. It felt like the rush that goes through you went you take a shot of hard liquor. Courtney's face softened and offered him a deal.

"If I tell you...you have to promise this time. That you won't come back. That you'll live a long, and happy life, and not come back here until it's time.

"I can't promise that." He said lightly and kissed the inside of wrist. Courtney took her hands away from him so that she could cup his face.

"Duncan...Please." She pleaded one last time. It may have had something to do with her being an angel but the power she had over him was too strong.

"I promise."

"I died..." A tear fell down Courtney's face as she unveiled her secret. "When your soulmate dies before you, they become your guardian angel."

He was stunned and had a million questions that he didn't get to ask. Without any more explanation she kissed him. She held onto him during the kiss as long as she could but he vanished.

Duncan heaved on the hardwood floor. The contents of his stomach emptied along with the pills he had swallowed. His eyes watered and shoulders shook from vomiting. As soon as his breathing leveled and his mind was clear enough he banged his fist hard on the floor.

His whole body ached from the pills but his heart is what hurt the most. There was too much for him to process. So much he didn't understand but now made so much sense.

He was helpless. Duncan looked to the hand he had used to assault the floor and stretched his fingers. Nothing was broken but in his palm was a lone white feather.


	2. Part 2

Duncan lay in bed staring up at ceiling, as he often did these days. His fingers played softly with the feather that he cherished so took over a week to digest what Courtney had told him. It was a lot to process. He hadn't believed in angels and those had turned out to be real, so he had to believe that what Courtney said was true about them being soulmates. It didn't make sense and yet it was the perfect explanation for why he kept going back to her. They were supposed to be together, but if that was so then why weren't they? It wasn't fair.

There were so many more answers he needed to know: how did she die, why hadn't they met when she was alive, but most importantly, how was he supposed to go on living without her?

Everything felt...pointless.

Before Duncan had his first brush with death he hadn't really pictured himself settling down. He figured he would someday, but not anytime soon. Now he saw it all so clearly. The fights and the making up, getting married, having kids, growing old. All with Courtney.

It was a hope for a life they'd never have. He was hers and she was his but fate kept them apart.

Unless...

Duncan shot up from his bed and determinedly sought out his liquor cabinet. He found the full bottle of whiskey easily and unscrewed the cap. He held it up to his mouth to chug the whole bottle, then remembered.

He promised.

He promised her he wouldn't. Its what she wanted. She'd told him once that when it was time they would see each other again but he didn't want to wait that long. His future was bleak and meaningless.

This time was going to be different. This time he had no intention of returning. This time he was going to let the clock run out.

He tilted his hand back and downed the bottle.

* * *

When he arrived to the familiar place something about it felt off. It was too quiet. Usually the moment he got there Courtney would berate him, albeit flirtatiously. Like the first time, he saw a bright light coming toward him and was relieved. He was going to tease her for being late.

Except as the light got closer, it was clear that this angel was not Courtney.

"Who the hell are you?" Duncan asked, incredibly dissatisfied.

The angel looked indifferent, bored even.

"If you must know, I'm Noah." He answered. "Not the Noah with the ark, so don't ask."

"I wasn't going to. Where's Courtney?" Noah rolled his eyes as if he was already over this whole conversation.

"Courtney isn't here anymore. That's what happens when you break the rules."

"Who cares if she broke the rules?"

"We do." Duncan was quickly becoming enraged at this whole ordeal.

"She shouldn't have died in the first place!"

"It was a tragedy, but it was out of our hands." Noah answered his next question before Duncan could ask it.

"The day you were supposed to meet, she was murdered. We can't control everything." Duncan was taken aback, he never imagined that her death had been anything but an accident.

"That's bullshit!"

"Don't get angry at me! I'm just here because we knew you wouldn't keep your when people cheat death they don't try to repeat the situation. They're so happy that they're alive that they don't think twice about the "seeing an angel" thing," Noah looked Duncan up and down, "Not you apparently. Thanks to you we have to rework the whole system."

Duncan was at a loss for words, had his efforts to be reunited with Courtney been for nothing? Noah cut in again to rush the process along.

"Well, this has been fun, but I have been assigned the task of sending you back one final time."

"I'm not going back. Courtney and I belong together, so I'm staying."

"Not your choice. Now let's get this over with." He advanced on Duncan.

"Wait, you're gonna kiss me?"

"I thought that you knew how this worked?"

"You're not really my type." Noah crossed his arms, utterly fed up with having to put up with him. Duncan read his expression and gave in.

"Fine, but no tongue." Duncan winked.

Noah didn't dignify him with an answer. Instead he grabbed him by the shoulders and before Duncan knew it he was once again home and felt the burning sensation that came with vomiting up alcohol.

His forearm wiped across his mouth and he rolled onto his back. Duncan could already feel that he was going to have the worst hangover in the morning. Through the pounding in his head that repeated over and over again, came the reminder that he hadn't accomplished what he had sought out to. He wasn't with Courtney. She was gone and he didn't know how to reach her this time. He groaned and struggled to get to his feet.

He was defeated. Duncan usually found a way around the barriers that kept him from what he desired, but not this time, and he was out options. In such a short time he'd fallen so deeply and now he didn't know if he'd ever see Courtney again. His angel, his soulmate.

* * *

Courtney had been summoned. She didn't know what that entailed but was sure that it wasn't a good thing. Her entire human life she had never gotten in trouble with anyone in a position of authority. She'd never been sent to the principals office, or had gotten a detention. As a lawyer she was used to defending someone to a judge, not defending herself. Now as she stood waiting, her fate yet to be determined, she felt like someone on death row. Ready to be sent to her executioner at any moment.

Courtney was engulfed in darkness. She'd never seen such darkness, save for that moment right after she had died. She remembered dying so clearly. Courtney had won a court case against someone who had been embezzling money from their company. The man hadn't been happy with his prison sentence and loss of assets. When she was leaving the courtroom he shot her and everything faded to black. The same black she was now stuck in.

As far as she knew there was no floor beneath or walls around her. As soon as she was summoned she was transported to this place of nothingness. A silent nothingness. Her ears and sanity begged for some sort of noise. Something to cling to.

She was startled when a booming voice suddenly rang out. So startled that she didn't catch what the voice had said.

"Excuse me?" She inquired softly.

"Do you know why you're here?" The voice asked.

"I think I do..." Their charade could only go on for so long before they were found out. Courtney thought her and Duncan would have been caught long before now. The only question left was: what were they going to do with her?"

"You have broken the rules. The time has come for your punishment." Courtney's heart leapt up into her throat. She had never been punished save for when she was a small child. She never meant to break the rules, they had to know, they had to see. Pleading her case was what she was good at, so she did.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen." Courtney paused. "My whole life I always did everything I was told and followed every rule and I had every intention of doing that as a guardian angel...but he kept coming back and I couldn't stop it. And then I didn't want to stop it because I felt more alive with Duncan than I ever did on earth. Even if it was just for the briefest of moments...we were happy. For once I was truly happy..." Tears were prickling her eyes but she continued.

"So, whatever it is you're going to do with me, it's okay, because it was worth it." She finished but was met with silence again. Courtney could faintly hear whispers but couldn't decipher what they were saying.

"Your fate has been decided."

* * *

The streets were empty as Duncan pulled up to the apartment. After turning off the vehicle he sat, staring out into space ahead of him. He had been a recluse, only venturing out of his home for work. Ever since his last visit to heaven, he had fallen down a hole. Nothing felt like it mattered anymore. He couldn't move on. He couldn't ignore that he didn't know if he would ever see Courtney again, and worried what happened to her.

He was stuck in his own pit of despair that started soon after the last time he saw her. Two months later and he hadn't found a way to crawl out of that pit.

Tonight he'd forced himself to make an effort. It was his best friend Geoff's birthday party and as much as he was in no mood to celebrate, he knew he couldn't be a hermit forever.

Duncan half smiled when Geoff's long time girlfriend Bridgette opened the door.

"Hey! We were staring to think you ditched town, we haven't seen you in so long." Duncan shrugged, not wanting to get into it, not that anyone would believe him.

"Sorry, I've been busy." Bridgette shook her head with a smile.

"Come on in, Geoff is going to be stoked that you made it." He crossed the threshold, already not in the mood for the party that was in full swing.

Bridgette rose up on her toes to look around the room.

"He's around here somewhere..." Then she appeared to have spotted him because she got excited when she spoke next.

"Wait! You have to meet my best friend from college, she never comes to these things," she paused then leaned in close to whisper even though Duncan's doubted anyone could hear her. "she had this near death experience and suddenly is trying to live it up more."

Duncan looked away as Bridgette grabbed someone among the crowd of people. The last thing he wanted was to be set up right now.

Duncan looked up out of manners. He didn't want to be rude when Bridgette was obviously so excited to introduce them.

"Duncan this is-" Duncan couldn't stop himself when blurted out.

"Courtney?" Unless she had a twin sister that she had never mentioned, that was Courtney, his Courtney. The same beautiful hair and face and he had to do everything to restrain himself from throwing his arms around her.

"Have we met?" Courtney asked. She had the same voice too. Duncan frowned, if she was Courtney then wouldn't she remember him? Duncan covered quickly.

"Uh...no, but Bridgette's mentioned you before." The excuse seemed to work on both girls.

"You two should get to know each other!" Bridgette budded in suddenly and then left them alone. Courtney rolled her eyes like she had suspected that Bridgette would do something like this.

"Guess we should do what she says?" Courtney offered. She really must not have remembered him, surely she would have said something by now, but Duncan didn't care if she did or didn't. He didn't care if they had to get to know each other all over again, because maybe she didn't know it yet, but they were soulmates. They had the rest of their lives to spend together. That alone had him beaming.

"Guess we should."

* * *

The end! Was this my best work? Absolutley not, but it was fun to write at the time. Hope you guys enjoyed it!


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